Cells avoiding suicide may play role in spread of cancer

New studies probe mechanisms of death-defying anastasis

Anastasis

NOT DEAD YET  Cells on the brink of dying from a type of programmed suicide known as apoptosis (left, a cancer cell known as a HeLa cell) can come back to life through a process called anastasis (right) if conditions improve. DNA is shown in blue. 

 

Ho Lam Tang

SAN FRANCISCO — Mostly dead is still partly alive, even for cells on the brink of suicide, new research suggests.